Swine flu risks seen as higher for blacks in Oklahoman

Black people appear to be at an increased risk of hospitalization or death from swine flu, according to the Oklahoma City-County Health Department.

In Oklahoma County, blacks make up 14 percent of the population but have accounted for 33 percent of hospitalizations.

"That doesn’t mean there’s any sort of racial or genetic characteristic that would make blacks more susceptible to the flu — we don’t have any evidence of that,” said city-county health department epidemiologist Susan Harman in a news release.

Only 3 percent of blacks in Oklahoma County have received swine flu vaccinations, according to department records.

Since Oct. 1, more than 559,000 H1N1 doses have been administered in the state. Forty people have died from H1N1, but no new deaths have been reported in recent weeks, according to state Health Department records.